So it begins

Late night chases

Published Date : November 30, 2003

Another week and another month have come and gone.  Time is flying indeed.

The trip back to London on Sunday was quite uneventful.  I wrangled a ride to the Anagnina bus station from some French tourists I met at the train station, so I only had to worry about hopping on a bus from there to the airport.  It should have been simple, but it took me forever to figure out where to get the tickets, and then which bay the bus left from.  With my extremely limited Italian, and a couple of equally confused British backpackers, we finally found our way to the right bus.

For the most part, the rest of the week was pretty routine.  I took Monday off as a much needed recovery, laundry, and errand day, but then it was back to work on Tuesday.  On Thursday Greg was kicked out of the hostel just because one of the night managers decided to take a disliking to him.  He’s going home on Monday anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a struggle to find somewhere else to stay for a couple of nights.

The only other excitement of the week was that Nidal has taken off.  He hasn’t paid for the last week, and at 2am the manager decided to come into his room and get his money.  So Nidal ran off, and the manager chased him around the hostel, and then Nidal made it back to his room, and climbed out the window.  Never a dull moment in Olave House!

More routine

Published Date : December 6, 2003

Another week gone by with not a lot to report.  I’ve signed up for a medical trial for contact lens research.  It pays £200 for 4 visits – extra cash is always good.  It’s something about the effects of computer usage on contact lens wearers.  I’ll find out more at my first appointment next week.

Gray left for Thailand on Monday.  It’s been pretty quiet without him around.  He picked up some fake student cards for Jake and I while he was in Bangkok, so those should come in handy.  My real one expired in September, but I still use it when I can.  It’ll be good to have one that’s not expired though!

I was talking to Danny last night and he had some news for me.  Apparently Sal, the thief who was around over the summer, is still in town.  Some guys from the Nevern Hotel who had been conned by Sal tracked him down and worked him over pretty well from the sounds of it.  Sal took off pretty quickly after that.  Rumour has it that he didn’t even take any of his belongings with him.  He just bolted, which was probably the safest option for him.

Tis the season

Published Date : December 12, 2003

I had my first appointment for the contact lens trial.  All I have to do is play games on a computer and shout out numbers every once in a while to let the researchers know how comfortable/uncomfortable my eyes are with different contact lenses in.  Highly technical work.

My staff Christmas party was last night, and it went quite well.  The younger crowd – that would have me and 3 of the English guys – went on a bit of a pub crawl, then met the rest of the department at the restaurant.  There was good food, free drinks courtesy of the boss, and lots of fun.  Things were quite calm though; nobody got out of control.  Apparently last year things got a bit hairy; I would’ve loved to have seen it!

After the staff party, it was off to the Richmond for a going-away party.  Chris is going home to Australia, Jake is heading back to California, and Callum is going back up to Scotland for a while.  Chris has been at the hostel since I arrived there, so it’s sad to see him leaving.

Cabin fever

Published Date : December 19, 2003

Leceister Square Christmas fair

A few of us – Sian, Emma, James and I – decided to go swimming on the weekend out in Fulham.  It was great to get out of Earl’s Court and do something physical for a couple of hours.

I had two more staff Christmas parties to go to this week.  Both were lunches, so I was paid to sit in a restaurant and drink wine.  Tough life.  Work has been ridiculously boring the last couple of weeks.  There’s just no work to do this time of year, but we still have to show up, so the days are long and dull.

I’m really looking forward to going up to Edinburgh next week.  Things are starting to get quite tense at the hostel these days.  There hasn’t been any new blood for a while, and with only 8 hours of light a day everyone’s getting a little frayed around the edges.  We all need a break from each other and ironically we’re doing that by all heading up to Edinburgh for the holidays where we’re going to see each other some more.  Go figure.  Some people will be staying there though, so hopefully we’ll see some turnover at the hostel in the New Year.

Oxford St lights

Even before cabin fever set in I had decided that it was time for me to get the heck outta Dodge.   I’m saving all my pennies so that I can actually do some travelling and head to the Southern Hemisphere for a while.  I’ve been scouring travel magazines and websites looking for deals and I think I’ve found a great one.  If I can scrape together the funds, I’ll be travelling overland from Istanbul, Turkey to Cape Town, South Africa via the Middle East and Eastern/Southern Africa.  Then I’m going spend a month or so in South Africa before I head over to Perth, Australia with a stop in Mauritius for a week or two on the way.  The whole shebang is going to cost me a little over £6000 and take 6-7 months, and I can’t wait!  If I can get the money together (which I have every intention of doing!), I’ll be leaving sometime in October 2004 and hopefully landing in Oz around April/May 2005.

The trip I had planned to Spain and Portugal in March has gone out the window now so that I can afford for the “big one”.  And I’m pretty much not going to have a life for the next 10 months so that I can save more money, but it’ll be worth it.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get out and take in the experience of Christmas in London.  It does me good to get exercise, fresh air and some time to myself!